Originally from Handbook on International Commercial Arbitration - Second Edition

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The agreement to arbitrate can involve the interaction of a number of different laws and it is simply wrong to refer to the arbitration as being governed by only one law as might be inferred from clauses in a contract that provide for arbitration as follows:

Any dispute of difference arising out of this agreement shall be referred to arbitration under the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce. The arbitration shall take place in Paris.

And a governing law clause that provides: "This agreement is governed by English law."

To the uninitiated, it might be thought that only English law might be relevant. In fact, there are many more laws that might be relevant. Confusingly, many of these are described in Latin. Appendix 1 is a list of various laws and corresponding descriptions and meanings. The laws that may have to be considered in an international commercial arbitration include:

1. The law governing the parties’ capacity to enter into the main agreement;
2. The law governing the parties’ capacity to enter into an arbitration agreement;
3. The substantive law of the contract or obligations in dispute;
4. The law governing the agreement to arbitrate including its scope, effect, construction and validity;
5. The law governing the proceedings of the tribunal upon the particular reference;